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Chapman’s Rocky Mountain road trip highlights weekend MCLA slate

The weekend MCLA slate is pretty quiet, at least locally, with a number of teams off for spring break and most others playing out of town. Chapman has the most intriguing road trip, playing two of the best programs in the country on a visit to the Rocky Mountains. In Division II, Cal State San Marcos has a tough back-to-back with visits to Concordia and Pepperdine.

Division I

No. 5 Chapman, 7-2 and riding a six-game winning streak, embarks on its second big road trip of the season, this time to Colorado. The Panthers play at No. 3 Colorado (9-0) Saturday then at No. 1 Colorado State (9-0) on Monday. Chapman swept No. 4 Arizona State (8-1) and No. 21 Grand Canyon (5-3) on an Arizona swing three weeks ago and hasn’t lost since falling to No. 8 Oregon 9-8 and No. 6 BYU 11-8 in late February.

Among other Southland Division I teams, UCLA (4-4, 0-1) visits UNLV (5-4, 2-2) in an SLC divisional matchup, and Loyola Marymount (2-7, 1-2) travels to play San Diego State (7-2, 0-2).

No. 7 UC Santa Barbara (6-3) and Claremont (4-3) are off until Tuesday, while USC is on spring break and doesn’t play again until March 30.

Jeff Lyon has 18 goals and 16 assists to lead Fullerton in scoring.

Division II

Cal State San Marcos (5-1, 1-1), coming off its first loss of the season — 13-4 to Cal State Fullerton, faces it’s second consecutive stern test Saturday with a trip to Irvine to play No. 4 Concordia (6-1, 3-0). Sunday, the Cougars venture further north to take on Pepperdine (3-2, 3-0), which leads the SLC North.

I didn’t get to see the San Marcos-Fullerton game last Saturday — won 13-4 by the No. 17 (D-II) Titans (7-3, 1-0) — but from what I heard from both sides it didn’t turn on the anticipated matchup of the high-scoring Cougars’ offense vs. the Titans’ veteran defense. Rather, Fullerton dominated time of possession and never allowed the San Marcos offense to get rolling. The high-scoring attack duo of Kyle Peterson and Dylan Perry scored only two goal, both man-up.

“Coach [Christian] Wheeler really has Fullerton clicking on all cylinders at the perfect time of the year,” San Marco coach Teddy Hicks said via email. “They really are a complete package. Offensively and defensively, they operate as one unit. They played a very solid game.”

It took the Titans a few weeks to figure out their offense after losing Cameron Cole and Chris Cole to transfer, but Fullerton is averaging 15 goals per game its last four and 9.5 for the season. Junior attack Gabe Alamillo (Mater Dei) scored four goals against San Marcos, and junior middie Jeff Lyon (El Toro) had two goals and three assists.

Defensively, the Titans are allowing only 7.2 goals per game for the season.

Not to look ahead, but let’s look ahead: If division-leading Concordia gets past San Marcos on Saturday, the Eagles will have only Fullerton left in conference play. Last year, Fullerton lost the regular-season matchup 15-7, then beat Concordia 10-9 in the SLC playoffs. In 2011, Concordia won in the regular season but Fullerton also bounced back for a playoff victory. The rivalry resumes April 13 at Fullerton.

About Jim Loftus

Jim grew up a fan of all sports but became a lacrosse fan when he moved to New England in 1999 and his oldest son started playing. Now his two younger sons have taken up the crosse, and the sport now borders on an obsession. A veteran of sports media, he now resides in the Los Angeles area and hopes to feed that obsession by posting about L.A. lax on the interwebs. Follow him on Twitter.